I Hired My First Engineer Without Leaving a Claude Chat

Hiring your first engineer usually means five tabs: a website builder, a form tool, a spreadsheet, your inbox and your calendar. Every handoff between them is a chance to lose a good candidate.

I wanted to see how far I could get without leaving Claude. The answer: all the way to booked interviews.

Step 1: Connect the tools

Add Sitelas from Claude's connector directory. It takes one click. While you're there, switch on the Gmail and Google Calendar connectors too. You'll use them at the end.

A connector lets Claude do things in another tool, not just talk about it. With Sitelas connected, Claude can build and publish websites and read what people send through their forms.

Step 2: Ask for the careers page

Describe it in plain words:

Using Sitelas, build and publish a careers page for my startup, Northwind. We're hiring a founding backend engineer. Modern, confident tone. Add an application form with name, email, résumé upload, GitHub link, years of experience and "a project you're proud of".

Claude picks a design that fits, writes the page and adds the form with exactly those fields. Because you asked it to publish, it previews the page, puts it live and hands you the link. Want changes? "Add a second role for a designer." Claude edits it, shows you and republishes when you say so.

If you'd like a head start on the design, browse the startup and SaaS templates.

Step 3: Applications collect themselves

There's nothing to set up. Every application lands in your Sitelas inbox with every answer, and the résumé is stored privately as a secure download link. Where Your Form Submissions Go explains the details.

Step 4: Ask Claude to shortlist

Share the link wherever you'd normally post the role. When applications arrive, you ask:

Read the applications for the backend role. Score each candidate 1 to 10 on production experience, startup background and the quality of their "project you're proud of" answer. Give me a ranked table with a one-line reason each, and flag the top five.

Claude reads the applications and returns a ranked shortlist with its reasons. Then you can question it like a hiring partner:

• "Compare number two and number four on distributed systems."
• "Who might I be underrating?"

Treat the ranking as a first pass. Open the résumés of anyone you're serious about, and make the decisions yourself.

Step 5: Invite and schedule

In the same chat:

Draft interview invites to my top five, and suggest three slots next week from my calendar.

Claude drafts the emails through your Gmail connector and suggests times from your Calendar connector. You review, change anything you like and send.

Why one chat beats five tabs

The context never resets. The chat that built the page knows the role. The chat that read the applications knows who stood out. And the same chat writes the invites, so nothing gets copied between tools. It's the same idea as running your whole website from a Claude chat.

Run a recruitment or staffing agency rather than one startup's hiring? Recruitment website design covers a full agency site: a jobs board, a CV form on every job and a form for employers.

Questions people ask

How do I make a careers page for my startup? Connect Sitelas to Claude and describe the role and the form fields you want. Claude builds the page and shows you a preview. It goes live when you say publish.

Can applicants upload a résumé? Yes. Add a file field to the application form. Sitelas stores each file privately and puts a secure download link in your inbox. You set the size limit per field, up to 25 MB.

Can AI screen job applications? Claude can read every application and rank them against what you ask for. Treat that as a first pass. Read the résumés yourself and make the decisions.

Can Claude schedule the interviews too? With the Gmail and Google Calendar connectors on, Claude suggests slots and drafts the invites. You review them and send them yourself.

Try it

Add Sitelas to Claude, connect Gmail and Calendar, and describe the role you're hiring for. For another example of the same loop, see I Launched a Waitlist and Ran It From One Claude Chat. Start at sitelas.com.